A blog about my life in Leeds, building a home, growing a garden and planning a wedding!

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Light Refreshment in Bruges!

Mr Ward and i had a lovely trip to Bruges at the start of the month and i have to share a little bit about my favourite places to enjoy a Belgian beer.

The first is Bierbrasserie Cambrinus, known as the King of Beer in Belgium, stocks 409 different beers! Upon arrival you are given a massive folder full of beers to choose from which if you're bad at decision making like me can be a time consuming affair!

From the outside the bar blends in to the side street with just a couple of barrels on the pathway, it's only a short walk from the main square and doesn't scream out as a tourist venue, the prices are reasonable too. The bar takes up the whole left side and is full with gold taps and glasses of all shapes and sizes and on the right are gorgeous stained glass windows that flood in light and make everything glint. I think it's one of the few places we visited without a fire, but the windows and lighting make it really warm and welcoming, along with the smell of beer and mussels!

Inside Bierbrasserie Cambrinus

The beer menu is extensive and separated by beer types, wheat, fruit, blonde, dark etc. we found that the best way to go was close your eyes and point your finger, this method dramatically reduced decision making time and made sure we got to try different things!

Beer

The photos show some of the different beer we tried, a new one for us (well Mr Ward) was 'La Corne', we have had the novelty of Kwak before - a 12% beer that is served in a conical - and decided to mix it up with a beer served in a horn instead!

Another something new was coconut beer, which was actually really nice! I think it would work great with a curry, especially thai curry, but you couldn't do a whole evening drinking it. It was very refreshing and fragrant, but a bit too sweet.

Pink Grapefruit & Coconut Beers

If you get peckish at Cambrinus, they do have a good food menu too, we stopped off for some 'nibbles'
which ended up as a mid afternoon feast, but was well received after the beer!
Traditional Belgian Frites & Mayonaise - my idea of heaven, I'd even say I enjoyed them more than our good british chippy! Farm Ham and an intriguing nibble called Biercheese, which ended up being a rather large bowl of butter-like cheese served with packets of Heinz Mustard.
We also ate a main meal there, I had bouillabaisse (with chips) and Mr Ward had a half roast chicken. They of course also serve up the traditional Moules & Frites, but we gave it a miss this time round.

Nibbles

I would definitely recommend Cambrinus to anyone visiting Bruges and it's somewhere that me and Mr Ward would return to every time.

Light Refreshments!

The second is 2be a bar and a shop which has a beautiful canal side view and a wall of beer!

The bar itself if off a main street and most of the seating is outside on a terrace the is on the edge of a canal. There isn't a better place to drink beer on a sunny day. The bar has 7 beers on tap and these change weekly and lots of bottles to try, Mr Ward and I indulged in a beer which was naturally sugar free and only 47 calories per 100ml (and felt great afterwards!) by a brewer called Caulier amongst other 'heavier' beers we tried it was much appreciated!

Canal Views

More Beer

On the walk down to the bar the outside wall is filled with 100's of beers and glasses that are brewed in Belgium, even if you aren't a beer lover it's something not to be missed! 2Be also has a shop in which you can buy choccies and other tourist fodder, but most of all beer!!! It's a funky place and the basement is where the beer is hidden, it's a really old building and the basement is a black canvas full of beer on water level so the view outside is great too!

Inside the 2be shop

If you wanted to take a present home for a beer lover (or yourself) the 2be shop is great as it sells so many different bottles, all shapes, sizes and colours and glasses to match. You can even get your hands on 'La Corne'!

Colour Coordinated Beer!

My favourite was a wheat beer called Blanche de Namur, really tasty, almost herbal but definitely one for after your dinner as it was really filling! Any beer fans in Leeds, let me know what to try next!

By the way, I haven't forgot about all of the chocolate... they'll be my next blog post!